Sheet materials, such as foam insulation board, for example, are typically stored and shipped in bundles of stacked sheets. This method of storage and shipment is efficient, and, in the case of foam insulation board, also helps to protect the sheets, which alone may not have sufficient strength to be handled without causing damage to the sheet. The foam insulation sheets are usually approximately four feet (1.2 m) wide, and may range in length from approximately 4 feet to 8 feet (1.2-2.4 m). These sheets may come in a variety of thicknesses, ranging from about 0.5 inches to about 4.5 inches (13-114 mm).
Due to the size and weight of the bundles of sheet material, they must be moved by forklifts during storage and shipment. Two or more bundles are sometimes stacked together to allow a forklift to move multiple bundles of the sheet material at one time. In order for the forklifts to be able to lift and move the bundles it is necessary to provide spacers, or slats, on the bottom of each bundle, thereby creating a space for the forks of the forklift to slide beneath the bundle. In the case of foam insulation board, scrap insulation board is often used to make the spacers for the bottom of the bundles. However, the existing, largely manual methods used to cut the scrap insulation board into suitably sized spacers and to apply the spacers to the bottom of the bundles are inefficient and labor intensive.
Conventionally, a piece of scrap insulation board has been fed through a gang saw in order to create spacers, also referred to as slats, of the appropriate size. The gang saw includes multiple parallel saw blades and makes multiple cuts simultaneously. While this method of cutting the slats is somewhat effective in generating a large number of slats quickly, it also creates a significant amount of dust each time a piece of scrap insulation board is fed through the saw. In addition, the slats must then be removed from the gang saw manually and placed into a storage area until applied to the bundles of insulation board.
Application of the slats created by the gang saw to the bundles is accomplished by applying glue to one edge of each slat. The glued edge of each slat is then pressed against the bottom surface of an insulation board bundle, thereby creating the necessary spacers to facilitate transport of the bundle by a forklift. Both the step of gluing the edges of the slats, as well as the application of the slats to the bundles, has conventionally been performed manually by one or more workers. Thus, a worker manually applies a bead of glue to one edge of each slat, then must press and hold the slat against the bottom of an insulation board bundle until the glue has dried sufficiently to retain the slat in place. This manual process is both time consuming and labor intensive.
In addition, each bundle must be picked up individually by a forklift operator and, if desired, stacked on another bundle or positioned next to another bundle so that multiple bundles may be moved simultaneously. This also adds valuable time to the process due to the additional work required of the forklift operator.
There is therefore a need to improve upon the methods of cutting and applying slats to bundles of sheet materials, and of preparing the bundles for transport; particularly bundles of foam insulation board.